An Introduction to Producing Music (Part 4)

Growing with your Gear

When I first start playing guitar the only way I could tell if a guitar had a good sound was by the way it looked. If a guitar had lots of knobs, pickups, and a cool brand name logo I "knew" that it was a decent sounding guitar. The reason for this is that I hadn't developed an ear to really distinguish the tone quality of different instruments. This is the type of ability that takes years to develop and even many of the world's best guitarists regularly change the setup on their guitar. I've now been playing guitar for over 10 years and depending on the effects setup I still might not be able to distinguish the sound between 2 of my own guitars. Every year around November/December I see dozens of parents spending unholy amounts of money on beginning guitars for their children. What they don't know is that the biggest difference between a 500 dollar guitar and 2,000 dollar guitar is 1500 dollars. Unless you have been playing guitar for several years it is unlikely that you will be able to appreciate the value in the additional 1500 dollars. To an experienced guitarist everything is taken into consideration - the types of pickups, the different knobs, the bridge setup, the width of the neck, the ergonomics of the body, the sound and the overall look. In order to get the most out of your equipment you really need to grow with your gear.

My very first recording setup included windows media recorder and a cheap computer mic. The way I would "multi-track" would be by recording a strumming pattern, putting it on a CD and then with the use of an 1/8 inch Y splitter recording the music from the CD player along with a second guitar part I would play live. It didn't take a musician of any sort of tenure to know that my recordings were far from professional but it was a necessary stepping stone to reaching the point of full-fledged productions. This taught me some of the fundamentals of creating melodies and harmonies as well as some of the very basic theory behind writing for multiple instruments.

Some years down the road I ended up building my own computer and getting some very basic/cheap recording software. The software I used allowed for multi-track recording, mixing, and some basic effects. A friend of mine gave me a drum machine that I could use to create my own drum beats and because I already had 2 guitars and a bass I was proud to say that I had my own "studio". Just hearing my music on a recording was the coolest thing in the world. But there were a lot of things I hadn't planned for. First of all I never felt like my guitar sounded the same way live as it did on the recordings. My drum machine only had 1 snare sound and you could tell it was canned. Also, for some reason there was always a lot of noise (room sound and air) on my guitar/vocal tracks. Something else that I quickly noticed was that most radio productions have much more than just guitar, drums, bass and vocals. One time I tried to reproduce a pop song and because I didn't have access to every instrument in the recording I had to replace every single part with my guitar. At the time I couldn't tell how ridiculous the completed track turned out but I honestly wasn't at the stage where I really could. And it was good for me anyway as it taught me just how much goes into a full-fledged studio production. I can still remember spending 6 hours in one day ripping a drum beat from a song until I had every measure reproduced exactly how it was played in the recording

After my mission I decided I was going to do things right and so I purchased a better sound card, some high end software, a studio microphone and a tube preamp. Overnight the quality of my recordings increased exponentially. My guitars sounded significantly better, I had much better sounding drums, and I was slowly learning how to get rid of the room sound with equalizing and mic positioning. The biggest difference though was that my overall ability now had more room to grow. Now that I had my guitars sounding closer to how I wanted them I began to want more. I wanted strings. Some guy at a music store told me that I could download something called virtual instruments to get the sound of strings and that piece of advice changed everything for me. The first virtual instrument I began using was a piano. This was especially good for me because it required me to click notes on a staff and consequently my music and chord theory expanded. I later implemented a flute, then a cello, then a harp and the next thing I knew I wanted an entire orchestra. Over the next 2 years I stopped producing "songs" and moved on to writing for a full orchestra. Looking back I think to myself that had my father spent $5,000 (and that's just a start) on professional studio equipment now 10 years later I still wouldn't be able to fully appreciate the difference in quality. This is because my musical ability needed to grow before it would require the beauty of a full orchestra. In the very same way, when starting out, musicians have no reason to purchase high end equipment as they likely won't be able to fully use it until they have reached the level that comes only from the grueling hard work of musical production.

Now as I stated before I use a lot of virtual instruments. Virtual instruments are programs that contain recordings of a particular instrument playing numerous versions of every possible note that the particular instrument can play. I click notes on a staff and the virtual instrument plays it accordingly. Because each note or "sample" has been recorded by a professional instrumentalist people regularly ask me who I got to play the violin in my recordings. (Note that this is completely different from "synthesized" instruments that are digitally created and using loops which are recordings of musical phrases. I write every note of music in my productions) While peering the message boards of the internet I regularly see people posting on the subject of the inability of virtual instruments to sound real. First of all this is completely untrue but secondly what they are forgetting is that no one is going to care whether or not the instrument sounds real or fake if the music isn't worth listening to. Last year I purchased a high quality virtual orchestra library because I was at a point where I was ready for it. I had been using low quality freeware samples for years and I was at the point what I had completely outgrown my tool set. I can honestly say that 2 years ago my musical ability did not deserve high quality instrumentation. There's always something you can do to make your music sound better and since we often assume our music is divinely inspired we tend to look at upgrading our equipment rather than our ability. And to someone who knows what they're doing It's very possible to get a professional sound out of inexpensive equipment. Ever heard of the "touch of the master's hand"? In the hands of the right musician even a cheap guitar can sound excellent. I guarantee you that if you heard Joe Satriani or Steve Vai playing a cheap guitar the last thing you would be thinking about is the price of the instrument.

At this point I consider my level of production to be professional but neither myself nor my musical equipment reached that point overnight. It's taken years to acquire to what I have both physically and musically. When people are first starting out they often ask me what program I use for recording. I have to tell them that I actually use several programs. I have a program that I use for recording and mixing, a program for guitar amps, a program for orchestral instruments, a program for drums, a program for adding effects and a program for mastering tracks. I then ask them what exactly they want to do. If they want a basic recording that they can listen to in their car it can be accomplished with a single program but if they want a full on production they will likely be spending several hundreds of dollars on several different programs as well as several different mics, guitars, audio interfaces etc.

My point in all of this is that there is no reason to invest money into expensive equipment if you can't tell the difference. No one is going to listen to your recording and say "He's obviously playing a Steinway" or "She's obviously playing a Stradivarius". As long as the instrument sounds "good" your listeners will pay more attention to the melody than the instrument. (The exception to this is when someone just has an awful singing voice and no one has the "heart" to tell them to switch hobbies.) Can a guitar from Walmart sound good? Can virtual instruments sound real? It doesn't matter if the music is dull. If you're interested in recording/producing music find a freeware program and see if it does what you want. If you start wanting more than what you have then move on to spending a little cash. But don't depend on your purchasing power to make your music sound good. If your music needs an expensive instrument in order to sound "good" then it probably doesn't sound good at all. Don't miss out on the advantage that comes from growing with your gear.